411 Games Top 5 11.30.12: Top 5 Holiday Gamer Gift Ideas

Hello everyone, I hope it has been a good week for all the readers out there, it is time for the Holidays.

Stephen Randle (Quizmaster of the Four Player Co-op & Writer of Wrestling News Experience in Wrestling Zone)

5. Wii U – Obviously. I mean, you know you’re going to buy one eventually. You might as well get it when you can justify it with “It’s a Christmas gift”, as opposed to the middle of April when you have no such excuse.

4. Persona 4 Golden – Okay, I know not everyone owns a Vita, but I do, and this game is tops on my Christmas list. After years of a declining Final Fantasy product, people need to be reminded that Square Enix isn’t the only JRPG maker in town, and this is the current crown jewel of Atlus’ Persona franchise. Buy it and you won’t be disappointed.

3. Preorder for The Last Of Us – I so hotly anticipate this game being awesome that I considered campaigning to be allowed to name it 2012 Game of the Year even though it’s not out until 2013. So why not ensure that when it comes out, you’ll be among the first to pick it up?

2. Anything from the Steam Winter Sale – They whetted my appetite with the brief Thanksgiving Weekend sale, but no matter what your genre is in PC gaming, you will find something during their 12 Days of Christmas sale at a ridiculously affordable price. It’s like Black Friday, for two weeks, with no lines! Be warned: the prospect of AAA Titles for under ten dollars apiece may cause you to forget that buying twenty of them is still a large chunk of change.

1. Ready Player One – Okay, this is actually a book, but it’s a good book, and it’s all about classic video games and dystopian futures and massive government conspiracies, and if you have a gamer who also likes to read (they do exist!), this will definitely fit right into their wheelhouse. I picked it up on a whim, and was pleasantly surprised.

Lee Jones (Reader Voice)

5 – Playstation All Stars Battle Royale – The family game to play this xmas. Forget all that Just Dance 4 rubbish, anybody can play and enjoy this game, especially if its in short bursts of group play. Characters even mum might know, plenty for little bro to mess around with (while you focus on 1 so own him everytime), and well… you get to beat them up over christmas, fun.

4 – Far Cry 3 – oh you mean this isn’t about people buying presents for me well okay but this is what I want so of course I’d recomend it to others. It looks great, the story is appealing, the guns should be decent and there’s plenty to mess around with. Oh and we’re told no more annoying checkpoints that made me finish the previous game as fast as I could and never return. Wanna know what I’ll be playing Dec 25th? It’s this baby.

3 – Need for Speed Most Wanted 2 – We all love Criterion, most of us probably liked a Need for Speed game, we all have mixed feeling about EA. Its an up to date Burnout Paradise, just think about that then go write it on your letter to Santa. Cars handle amazing, speed is always good, crashes are still fun. Sure it could do with some silliness (I really just want the ‘Knightrider’ car again) but with so much to do and multiplayer kicking ass this gets a big thumbs up from myself.

2 – Playstation Plus – I’ve had this from day one and have never regretted it. Whilst I miss getting minor stuff like PS1 games for free I can appreciate that for only £39.99 you’re getting 10 full PS3 games and 4 Vita games, and you’ll keep getting more each month! That’s not including all the discounts you get. This is a great present to give someone if they’re skint. So many games for so little cost.

1 – Assassins Creed Liberation Vita bundle – Whilst this could be really expensive in the US its cheap for the UK, £199.99 gets you a wifi Vita, AC liberation and a 4gb memory card. That’s cheaper than buying the wifi vita on its own! Have Playstation Plus? Then you get Uncharted, Gravity Rush, Chronovolt and Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack without paying an extra penny. So Vita, 5 games and a memory card for under £200. Result.

Todd Vote (Games Zone Reviewer)

5.Tablet – I’ll admit after fiddling with one, tablets are really starting to grow on me. I’m kind of getting the urge to buy one… Anyways, there are some great games available on tablets, and most are at affordable prices.

4.Telltale Games Walking Dead Series – Seriously, if you have not played this yet. GET ON IT! This is my front runner for game of the year. The fact that it is at the top of my list, and also a XBox Live Arcade title, should speak volumes to it’s quality.

3.Resident Evil 6 – I think this game has gotten sort of a bad rep. It wasn’t the greatest thing to happen to the franchise, but I feel it was better than a lot of the reviews gave it credit for.

2.Classic consoles – For those older gamers out there, I don’t think you can ever go wrong with getting them a classic console that they may not have. I remember one year, my aunt got me the original NES and a bunch of games. I was pretty giddy about that. I still play it.

1.Gift Cards – Can’t stress this enough. If you are shopping for a gamer, and you are not a gamer yourself, barring them giving you a list of games they want, gift cards are the best route you can possibly go. Let them get a game they want. Don’t buy them that cheap game in the clearance bin just because it is $5.

Francisco Ramirez

5. Tales of Graces F – The PS3’s best JRPG of 2012 and one of the best entries in the series. Not only is it fun to play it will hold you up until Tales of Xilia drops.

4. World of Warcraft Monopoly – Yes, it’s the boardgame we all know and love/despise, but now with a WOW theme! The hard part will be to get the WOW fan you got this for to actually stop playing WOW and play some Monopoly.

3. Mega Man Kotobukiya Plastic Model Kit – Action figures are one thing, plastic models are another. Regardless of your preference, the Mega Man plastic models have a great look to them, perfect for any gamers shelf. Also comes in Roll, Protoman and Mega Man Zero.

2. Too Human and X-Men: Destiny – Yes I understand these games are by no means classic, or even enjoyable depending on who you ask. What is true is thanks to the lawsuit between Silicon Knights and Epic games, Silicon Knights must now destroy all unsold copies of those games. Meaning in the near future they might become extremely rare and collectors items.

1. Wii U – New year, and a new console, why the hell not? For the gamer who has to own every console, why not throw in a copy of Mario U while you are at it.

Sean Garmer (Games Zone Reviewer & Organizer of Games Top 5)

5. WWE 13: Maybe I am partial because I reviewed the game for the website, but I haven´t enjoyed a WWE game this much in a long while. And the second set of DLC has not even come out for the game yet. If you are a WWE fan and still not picked this up, you really should. If anything, at least rent it and play Attitude Era mode because that is the best thing about the game.

4. Tablet: My Uncle bought my Grandma a Samsung Galaxy Note 2, and it was the first time that I had ever played with a Tablet. I ended up loving the thing (I don´t have a Laptop by the way) because I could watch Hulu Plus anywhere and do my writing work while watching the episode of NXT I had to recap right there at McDonalds. It has other cool uses as well, but I would recommend a tablet to anyone that wants something small they can carry with them. I just wish I could find one that supports flash, but I´ve heard Adobe pretty much switched everything on mobile devices to HTML 5. So, I guess that probably won´t be happening any time soon.

3. A Home Console: All of the current gen consoles cost about the same amount right now. So, if the Wii U is sold out in stores around you. Parents could always pick up a 250 Gig Xbox 360 for the same price or a 250 gig PS3 for even less with a game included. So, this might be the year to finally get involved in the home console market if you have not already.

2. HALO 4: 343 has begun a new HALO series and it is probably one of the best games I´ve played this year. They continue the HALO tradition without making anyone notice that Bungie did not make this game. I love the Promethians as the new Villains, the gameplay may not have changed much, but why? It´s pretty awesome the way it plays. Of course, multiplayer is still the reason to play and will be for years to come.

Borderlands 2: The best game I´ve played this year and I can´t do anything but recommend it to others. Yes, maybe you should play Borderlands 1 as well, but Borderlands 2 has four new characters, four player co-op, and some damn fun multiplayer too. Did I mention it has guns galore?

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Wrestling 2 the Max Podcast A friend and I started our own wrestling podcast. Go listen to episode 14 and tell us what you think. New Episodes come out every Sunday Morning. We reviewed Survivor Series and also talked about What We Were Thankful For in 2012 Wrestling. We also discussed various news items in Quick Hits and did our weekly stuff with SmackDown, NXT, and Superstar of the Week.